The separation of gas and liquid phases from mixtures comprising gas and liquid phases is practiced across a wide variety of applications and materials. Gas-liquid phase separation is used in the oil and gas industry, various chemical manufacturing and treatment processes, heating and cooling applications, fuel management systems, and numerous other applications. For example, in many chemical manufacturing and treatment processes, liquid and gas phases are separated and directed along different paths for further individual processing or treatment.
Many known gas-liquid separators utilize a coalescing medium such as a screen mesh or other porous medium to separate gas and liquid phases. During operation of such gas-liquid separators, as a gas-liquid mixture makes contact with the coalescing medium, liquid becomes engaged with the coalescing medium. The coalescing medium is typically oriented such that as liquid accumulates on the coalescing medium, liquid droplets become larger until their mass becomes sufficiently high that the force of gravity acting on the droplets causes them to migrate downward through or along the coalescing medium until they reach a collection point at the bottom of the coalescing medium. Such separators, however, are not effective in environments where gravitational forces are either not available (e.g., microgravity environments such as outer space) or are subject to interference (e.g., by changes in momentum when the separator is in motion such as on a motor vehicle or aircraft).